We Won’t Negotiate With Bandits, Katsina Govt Insists

Katsina State government has joined Zamfara State government in insisting that there will be no negotiation with bandits terrorising the North West zone.

Governor Dikko Radda, who disclosed this at Defence Headquarters, Abuja yesterday after a closed-door meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Christopher Musa, said the state government took the decision because past negotiations didn’t yield any positive result.

Zamfara State governor Dauda Lawal had vowed that the government of the state would not negotiate with bandits but it would rather support security agencies to stamp out banditry and other forms of criminality.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Radda said although the government had resolved to use both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to solve the security challenges, it would first put pressure on the bandits till they come out themselves that they’re ready for negotiation rather than meeting anyone of them for that.

“For now, we will not be able to negotiate with the bandits at the point of this advantage. We want to negotiate with bandits when there is already a lot of pressure on them, and then they can now come out and say that, look, we want to sit down and negotiate.

“At that point, we can negotiate with them and resettle them back into the society,” Radda, who doubles as the chairman of Northwest Governors’ Forum told Defence Correspondents.

He added that his government launched Community Security Corps with a view to strengthening the military and other security agencies fighting the terrorists in the Northwest, disclosing that members of the corps were recruited from the areas that face banditry.

“Yes, Community Security Watch was launched, and we were able to recruit them from the locals, from the communities where the banditry was taking place and efforts of the state government is to strengthen the military and also other security outfits so that together, they can do an operation that will reduce effects of insecurity on our people.

“In the last administration, what they did was to negotiate with bandits, and the negotiation has not yielded any results, we feel that let’s use kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to address the issue.

“I came to see the Chief of Defence Staff in order to strengthen the collaboration and partnership that exist between our state and the military because the military plays a very key role in reducing the insecurity in the country.

“You’re all aware of what we’re experiencing in Katsina State, and the efforts the state government is making to reduce the effects of insecurity in our state and the collaboration with the military is the only way out and other security outfits that we have in the country.

“Jointly we can do something that will reduce effects on our people, and also allow our people to go about doing their economic activities as enshrined in the constitution,” the governor said.

Earlier, the chief of defence staff, Gen. Musa urged the governors from security-challenged areas to always dialogue among themselves on how to permanently curtail the insecurity in their respective domains.

He pledged that the military high command would not relent in its efforts to neutralise any criminal element disturbing the peace of the zone and the country at large.